In a time where young artists are manufactured to suit radio airplay and mainstream profits, genuine songwriters are becoming a rare breed. Joel Harrison, a 23 year old singer/songwriter from regional New South Wales Australia is an artist who blends a vast range of influences including Pop, Surf, Rock and Jazz into songs that describe and invite listeners into the personal moments and emotions of the mature singer songwriter’s life.
Joel recalls his musical development “I was drawn towards ...
In a time where young artists are manufactured to suit radio airplay and mainstream profits, genuine songwriters are becoming a rare breed. Joel Harrison, a 23 year old singer/songwriter from regional New South Wales Australia is an artist who blends a vast range of influences including Pop, Surf, Rock and Jazz into songs that describe and invite listeners into the personal moments and emotions of the mature singer songwriter’s life.
Joel recalls his musical development “I was drawn towards the guitar by two things, Marty McFly playing Johnny B Goode in Back To The Future and hearing Richie Sambora and Slash play guitar in my sisters music collection”. After a few years of casual guitar playing Joel thought “maybe I can sing as well as playing the guitar.....it’s the next obvious step after you sing other peoples songs, you start to experience life and need a form of expression and release and I found that in my song writing”. Along the way Joel has performed in many different formats including Theatre, Cabaret, Band, Duo, Trio and Solo Acoustic shows and he contributes this to his eclectic musical tastes. In 2007 Joel recorded a 3 track demo of original material that received critical acclaim and national radio airplay.
Currently Joel is recording his debut album titled Thinking Over, Over Thinking. He refers to the palindrome title as “how my songs come about, I constantly over think things in life way too much and that leads to thinking over my over thinking which equals songs....I am so content with the songs I have written for my first release, each song represents a certain time or emotion I have experienced and I guess personally it’s a timeline of the last several years of my life”. While being compared to numerous artists including John Mayer, Diesel, Jack Johnson and Keith Urban Joel says “comparisons are inevitable when talking about music however while writing I don’t try to be or sound like anyone I just try to write the song without any pretence and whatever comes out is the song, they each deserve that”.
While Joel records his debut album scheduled for independent release early next year, he is constantly performing and writing around New South Wales. In 2009 the release of Joel’s album will bring more and more fans together who are infected by a young man’s warmth, realness and musical integrity.
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